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The IBTA is ramping up for our 23rdPlugfest (Plugfest 23), taking place April 1-12, 2013 at the University of New Hampshire’s Interoperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). The bi-annual Plugfest event provides cable and device compliance testing with the current InfiniBand ™ Architecture specifications as well as interoperability with other InfiniBand products.

The IBTA ElectroMechanical Working Group (EWG) has prepared a draft of the next InfiniBand ™ Architecture Specification, 1.3.1 of Volume 2, which specifies the parameters for Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) InfiniBand products. The InfiniBand™ specification defines the interconnect technology for servers and storage that changes the way data centers are built, deployed and managed. Many vendors have submitted EDR cables for testing, and we expect Plugfest 23 to be the preview of the new EDR generation of products. IBTA added FDR Receiver testing to this year’s Plugfest, which depends on Agilent, Anritsuand Tektronix test equipment and will lead the way for EDR device testing moving forward.

“The IBTA Plugfest has long been a critical event for InfiniBand vendors and users, and Plugfest 23 will be particularly important as the technology continues to advance,” said Dr. Alan Benner, system & network design engineer at IBM Corporation. “I’m looking forward to working with IBTA and our testing equipment partners to further the testing of InfiniBand-compliant products.”

Vendor devices and cables successfully passing all required Integrators’ List Compliance Tests and Interoperability procedures at Plugfest 23 will be listed on the IBTA Integrators’ List, updated twice per year, and will be granted the IBTA Integrators’ List Logo. The IBTA’s compliance and interoperability program provides resources for end-users who are building InfiniBand clusters, drives adoption of RDMA technology and provides assurance to participating vendors’ customers and end-users.

The IBTA wishes to thank Agilent, Anritsu, Molex and Tektronix for providing test equipment for the IBTA Plugfest. Testing equipment is provided free of charge for the benefit of the InfiniBand community. IBTA Plugfests would not be possible without this testing equipment.